wine tasting

Oliver Winery is an Indiana landmark

/ Roadtirementvintage / 16 Comments

The Oliver Winery is located north of Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. That is important, as Oliver Winery traces its roots to the basement of IU law professor William Oliver in the 1960’s. He started as a hobby, planted a vineyard north of town, and soon had a production winery in the early 1970’s.

Tasting bar in center

Lots of cool stuff!

Covered deck, lovely hill with picnic tables overlooking the pond

Oliver’s website gives a wonderful bit of history: “Professor Oliver was instrumental in passing legislation allowing for the creation of small wineries in our state. The Indiana Small Winery Act passed in 1971, and Oliver Winery opened in 1972. Sales took off with Camelot Mead, and we’ve been growing ever since. Today, we distribute our award-winning, fruit-forward wines to 40 states and ship across the country.”

Interesting limestone feature

Path to the tasting room

From the flower garden…

 

 

 

 

 

Oliver Winery grew rapidly during the 1980’s and early 1990’s. The new tasting room was built in 1997. The winery has become a very popular gathering place. The beautiful grounds provide peaceful areas for picnicking, including a lovely pond to add ambiance.

The stunning gardens and grounds are worth the time for a visit! We really enjoyed seeing the Oliver Winery in person. We had discussed many times making a visit to this well known winery. And yes, we left with some Cherry Moscato, Blueberry Moscato and local Dillman Farms Plum butter and Blackberry  preserves. Deliciousness coming!

Relaxing afternoon at Fall Creek Winery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 19 Comments

Sher and I went with our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter to the Dripping Springs area west of Austin. There we went to the Fall Creek Winery, one of the oldest wineries in the state. Established in 1979, this winery was one of the first in Dripping Springs, and the owners were instrumental in 1990 in securing official recognition of the Texas Hill Country as a recognized and respected viticultural region.

The entrance gate to Fall Creek Vineyards

The tasting rooms at the winery are located in the original ranch house. Rustic decor and beautiful views from the decks and rooms add to the relaxing atmosphere of this establishment. We got a table, looked at the menu and discussed our options with our hostess. The tasting menu included five different wines, all from Texas, three of which locally from the Texas Hill Country.

Rustic seating areas

Cozy lounge area

Cheese and meat plate

Pimento cheese and crackers

We all wanted to have some cheese and cracker plates, and our hostess suggested some sampling techniques utilizing the cheese samples. We talked about the wine having “legs”. Swirl the glass, take a whiff of the bouquet, and then take a sample taste. The legs are the drops of wine that run down the inside of the glass. Sometimes called “tears” or “fingers” these droplets have been the cause of controversy as to what they tell you, or don’t tell you. Some say the thicker the “tear” the higher the alcohol content. Others say that is phooey.

Anyway, it was most enjoyable trying the five different wines. In addition to those five, we asked about any sweet wines. Fall Creek Winery has one, Gotas de Oro,  a mix of 49% Muscat Canelli and 51% Chardonnay. Sher is holding that bottle in her picture. We liked the wines. We bought the bottle Sher is holding, and we also bought a bottle of the Chardonnay and one of the GSM, a mixture of Greenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre. This is yet another fun and relaxing winery that we have enjoyed. Plus we had the carry-outs again. Good times with each other and our dear family.

A fun wine and beer walk

/ Roadtirementvintage / 27 Comments

We had a most enjoyable wine and beer walk at the Mill Creek Town Center this evening. There were 10 stations, most had three wine samples, a couple had different samples of beer.

The Mill Creek Town Center is an upscale shopping and entertainment area. It includes restaurants, shops, banks and art galleries.



Brandywine Creek Winery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 14 Comments

Sher and I visited the Brandywine Creek Winery on our way home from a day of adventure in Greenfield, which is east of Indianapolis. We had seen Brandywine listed, but had never stopped. We are glad we did.

At the tasting bar

Without the sign out front, you’d think that the winery was a private home in Pleasant View, just off of I-74. Walking in the front door reveals a beautiful tasting bar with wine related merchandise displayed. In addition, several hand made jewelry pieces and some kids craft projects are also available.

Out front signage

The wine bar

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the wine is what’s important. The tastings are done at the wine bar, only $5 for 6 tastes. A wide variety of types of wine are ready for you. We enjoyed the tasting. and since I was driving, our hostess let us share a tasting. (I take sips, but still get a good read of the sample.) We liked what we tried, and purchased three bottles of their sweet wines.

Enjoy wine at a table overlooking the vineyard

The facility has a beautifully constructed porch/veranda out back with tables that overlook the vineyard. Brandywine has over five acres of vineyards in two locations. The first vines were planted in 2014. Check their website for details about their Event Room rental and schedule of weekend live music and Trivia events. We really enjoyed our visit.

Mallow Run Rhubarb wine

/ Roadtirementvintage / 20 Comments

It was time to open the bottle of Rhubarb wine that we purchased at the Mallow Run Winery yesterday, catch up on that story here. We were interested in the Rhubarb wine after reading about it on the winery website.

It is listed as their number one seller, sweet, but with that unique Rhubarb zing. They recommend pairing the wine with a cheese plate or green salad.

It is unique and delicious! We are having it with Triscuit crackers and we love the sweet Rhubarb taste.

The cork states “work hard, picnic often”

Mallow Run Winery, award winning wines

Our current favorite wine is from Buck Creek Winery

/ Roadtirementvintage / 17 Comments

Found our newest favorite wine!  Road House Red from Buck Creek Winery in Indiana has won the taste test and proven to be our favorite.   We had been to Buck Creek Winery about a year or two ago and had even taken a tour of the winery.  We knew we liked their wine, but we hadn’t found one that totally captured us. That is until we returned a couple of weeks ago.

The Road House Red variety is a sweet concord grape wine with an 11% ABV. It is sweet, smooth and very tasty.  It is good with cheese and fruit.  We also liked it with chocolate.  In fact, we liked it with everything we tried it with.

We spent a lot time trying different wines from wineries while we had been stuck with the coronavirus.  Not that we had it, we were very fortunate, but then we didn’t hardly leave our house for almost a year now.

We also like the Road House White and have ordered some more of it too.  Did I mention it can be ordered online and mailed to you? They have an extensive wine list for your buying pleasure.

But, Road House Red has become  our favorite.  You can check out the other varieties they offer at the Buck Creek Winery website. The winery is only 30 minutes from downtown Indianapolis off of Interstate 74.